InfiRay P2 Professional and TOPDON TC001 Thermal Cameras Capsule Assessment

The buyer thermal digicam market was opened up within the late 2010s by the launch of Search Thermal’s first offering and FLIR’s FLIR ONE / FLIR ONE Pro. These had comparatively excessive resolutions of 206×156 and 160×120, which allowed the businesses to additional reduce down the price of follow-up merchandise with lower-resolution sensors. US rules forestall these cameras from providing movies with body charges greater than 9 Hz, however that’s usually loads sufficient for all kinds of client use-cases resembling residence inspection (each electrical and plumbing), rodent management and so forth. The final couple of years have seen a brand new crop of thermal cameras from Asian distributors that aren’t topic to border fee limitations. Two distributors – InfiRay and TOPDON – reached out with evaluate samples of their consumer-focused smartphone-attachable thermal cameras. This capsule evaluate offers a comparative take a look at the options of the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001, with a deal with the consumer expertise facet.

Introduction and Product Impressions

InfiRay is the model identify below which merchandise manufactured by IRay Technology Co. are being marketed. The corporate has been in operation for the final decade and claims many patents associated to thermal imaging. The corporate designs and manufactures its personal thermal imaging sensors utilizing microbolometer infrared focal airplane array expertise. The fundamentals of microbolometer sensors have already been covered in our previous thermal camera reviews, and aren’t being repeated right here.

The P2 Professional is an ultra-compact smartphone-attachable thermal imager with a 256×192 decision. It sports activities a Sort-C male interface, and measures simply 9g in weight. The temperature measurement vary is from -4F to 1112F. It may well document movies at as much as 25 Hz. InfiRay claims an operational energy consumption of lower than 400 mW. The product additionally features a magnetic macro lens that permits thermal investigation of minute elements resembling these on a circuit board. An extension cable (Sort-C feminine to Sort-C male) can be supplied for flexibility in picture seize.

TOPDON is a vendor of automotive tools together with ADAS packages, battery instruments, EV chargers, and diagnostic instruments (together with thermal cameras). It’s a lot bigger than the InfiRay P2 Professional, however has the identical IR decision of 256×192. It weighs 30g, and measures 71mm x 42mm x 14mm. The temperature measurement vary is from -4F to 1022F. Included within the bundle is a 50cm USB cable with a Sort-C feminine port at one finish, and a Sort-C male with an connected Sort-C feminine to Sort-A male adapter.

Whereas each the P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 have their very own Android purposes, TOPDON additionally offers the Home windows-based TCView utility for picture / video seize and evaluation.

The core technical specs of each the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 are very comparable. The desk above presents a comparative view of the P2 Professional and the TC001 in opposition to different cameras concentrating on comparable market segments.

Software Interfaces and Pattern Photographs

The InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 determine themselves as USB cameras when related to a PC. The seller and system identifiers level to a Realtek bridge chip / microcontroller within the bundle. The items generate 256×384 streams, and the precise picture information is 256×192 (which could be seen by way of applications like guvcview on Ubuntu). The opposite 256×192 stream is the temperature information.

Open-source software based mostly on a reverse-engineered model of the picture construction can be obtainable for viewing dwell feeds from these thermal cameras. We put that to check and located that it managed to offer perception into the information from the cameras with out having to put in any closed-source software program.

We’re at the moment engaged on extending the software program to have the ability to learn and put out actionable info from images and movies recorded utilizing the respective smartphone purposes.

The galleries beneath current some screenshots of the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 Android apps

Because the inside platforms for each thermal cameras are the identical, it’s no shock that the totally different menu choices all find yourself configuring the identical features. Generally, we discovered the TOPDON TC001 app to be extra intuitive, whereas the P2 Professional had most choices hidden away below sub-menus. Total, each purposes allowed clear visualization of temperature gradients.

The picture and video high quality, in addition to temperature readings for a similar scenes, have been comparable for each the P2 Professional and the TC001. Some pattern photos are introduced within the above galleries. We additionally captured some movies they usually saved up with the marketed body charges, aside from the periodic calibration durations.

The P2 Professional’s macro lens does allow a differentiation – it’s potential to take close-up photos of PCBs below operation just like the one above.

Concluding Remarks

The InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 use the identical thermal imaging sensor, however goal totally different market segments. The TOPDON TC001 is a little more cumbersome, however comes with a extra versatile extension cable and related software program interface. The provision of a Home windows program to interface with the TC001 is an enormous plus for automotive restore retailers, as most of them run different associated software program on that platform. The P2 Professional focuses on the final client market and digital restore retailers. Its compact and light-weight nature is a bonus within the former phase. The macro lens helps in figuring out places of shorts or defective elements in small PCBs.

Each cameras use the identical picture sensor and USB bridge / microcontroller. The provision of publicly documented APIs for the TOPDON TC001 ends in the identical being relevant to the InfiRay P2 Professional additionally. Even with out these APIs, the temperature storage format has been reverse-engineered, and a proof-of-concept open-source software interface is already obtainable. There isn’t any want to put in closed-source software program in an effort to entry and analyze the recorded movies and images.

Whereas the picture high quality is superb, and sensor measurement for the worth is sort of good, we’re not solely satisfied by the accuracy of temperature measurements below computerized calibration. It’s potential that tweaked emissivity settings could ship higher outcomes, however we noticed the FLIR ONE Professional below comparable default circumstances ship way more correct outcomes. That is a side that wants additional investigation. That stated, most client thermal digicam purposes require the commentary of temperature gradients quite than absolutely the values. For such use-cases, thermal cameras such because the InfiRay P2 Professional and the TOPDON TC001 present wonderful worth for cash within the $200 – $300 price bracket.

One other facet that deserves point out previous to wrap up is the provision of 25 Hz thermal digicam movies at very reasonably priced value factors for the patron market. US-based producers resembling FLIR and Search Thermal could have to work on getting previous the artificially-imposed 9 Hz limitation if they’re to stay aggressive in opposition to the choices from IRay Applied sciences within the world market.